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Monday, 1 October 2012

Two other quotes of special
importance are provided by Blessed John Paul II, from his visit in 1981:“God’s hope is one of
peace, not one of pain.”...and by Blessed
Teresa of Calcutta, from her visit in 1984:“So that the terrible
evil that brought so much suffering to Hiroshima may never happen again, let us
pray together and remember – works of love and prayer are works of peace.” Unsurprisingly, the people of Hiroshima have
been in the forefront of global efforts, set out in great detail by the museum,
to ban the bomb. Yet, for all the tears i shed here, i believe this position of
outright renunciation is untenable in practice. In 1891 Alfred Nobel, corresponding
with Austrian countess Bertha von Suttner, it seems, was close
to the mark:

"Perhaps my [dynamite]
factories will put an end to war sooner than your congresses: on the day that
two army corps can mutually annihilate each other in a second, all civilised
nations will surely recoil with horror and disband their troops."

Frauenkirche, Dresden, eastern Germany

In his own immediate historical context
Nobel was wrong, but surely an echo of this way of thinking is found in the
concept of M.A.D. (mutually assured destruction), which appears to have had a
positive impact on the course of human history since the invention of the bomb.
In any case though, the ‘genie’ is unlikely to be enticed back into the bottle.
And for this reason, while i would never question the honourable intentions of
the museum’s commitment to the ideal of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons, i
would question the wisdom of being quite so explicit in describing how to make
them! Meanwhile, the idea set out elsewhere in the museum, of promoting
Hiroshima as a potential host of the Summer Olympic Games, is one that deserves
backing from all across the globe. In the visitors’ book back at the hostel,
where i’d left my luggage, i affixed another photograph of Dresden, this time
the Frauenkirche, and expressed my honest opinion that Hiroshima could probably
do a better job than London.

﻿

Kitano Ijinkan district, Kobe

Another exceedingly brisk (not cheap, but
very fast) train-ride took me from Hiroshima to Kobe. Arriving just after 7pm,
the station there was like a sort of ‘Disneyland’ for trainspotters, with at
least three differentkinds of 'racing'
locomotive on show. One almost expected the engine-drivers to emerge from their
cabins to thunderous applause, wearing helmets, and overalls plastered with
company logos, before ascending a podium and firing champagne corks across the
platform. I then had to take a local train to Sannomiya, from where, threading
my way along streets thronged with Saturday night revellers, eventually i found
the Catholic Church of the Holy Spirit. It being closed however, i settled down
to sleep on a fairly discreet ledge between a wall and a high-rise apartment
block nearby.

Kobe and Osaka Bay

On the morning of Sunday 17th
July, on the notice board at the Church i spotted a reproduction of the icon of
Stella Maris, ‘Our Lady, Star of the Sea’. I was due to meet up with my friend K,
who had given me a lift to Ben Gurion airport, via Nazareth, on the last day of
my visit to the Holy Land the year before. If i’d known that she was going to
see it as her duty to represent Japan
in showering the most regal hospitality upon me, i would have made sure to have
more than a little box of chocolate-coated almonds to give to her, but there
you are. Soon after her arrival we attended an English-language Mass, celebrated
by a priest from North America, at the end of which it was customary for
visitors to stand up and say a few words about themselves, so i mapped out my Mexican
march. This meant that a few people came up to chat to us after the service,
including a fellow from Tanzania, with whom my friend practised her Swahili, though
he spoke good English as well as Japanese. With friends of his we were then
driven through the Kitano Ijinkan
district, remarkable for its ‘European’-style residences, dating mostly to the
first years of the 20th century, to the foot of Mount Rokko. A cable
car took us from there to the Rokko Garden Terrace, with nice shops and
restaurants, commanding a magnificent view across Kobe and Osaka Bay. Lunch was
from a buffet, the cost of which i wasn’t permitted to see, but suffice to say,
it was the sort of fare one could imagine Hollywood executives doing deals
over. We then descended the way we came, and made our way back to the church
where i’d left my baggage. Having begun chatting with two English-speaking Japanese
people, including a girl whose name translated as ‘Heart’, i nipped into the
church to say a prayer that God’s will be done in the matter of my lodging for
that night. When i came back, our other new acquaintance, a retired history
teacher, offered to put me up in his spare room.

Pirate ship, harbourside, Kobe.

After arranging a time to meet up with him
later that evening, K and i went by a convoluted bus journey to Kobe’s
harbourside, where part of the Roald Dahl-scripted 1967 classic Bond You Only Live Twice was filmed. It was
intriguing to pass the entrance to Chinatown, though a cartoon panda
advertising coke left me wondering how much it might really owe to the culture
of the Middle Kingdom. There was also a tall ship with proper sails, and a life-sized,
very theatrical replica of a pirate vessel. We sought out a travel agent in a
giant shopping mall so that, although it meant queueing for quite a long time,
i could arrange my onward journey to Fukuoka for the following evening, from
where i hoped to do some walking to Nagasaki.

About Me

Hi, I'm James Bruce, a 41 year old chap from Bristol in England. I set off on 22 March 2013 from Blantyre, Scotland, with the aim of reaching Blantyre, Malawi, with God's help. I am raising money for Mary's Meals, the non-denominational charity that feeds children worldwide and helps them gain an education. I paid for all my expenses myself, thanks to a legacy from my late grandfather. If you would like to donate please call call 0800 698 1212 or visit www.marysmeals.org.uk.
I hope you will accompany me on this journey from wherever you are! God bless, James